That number may indicate that Apple plans to sell as many as 70 million iPhone 6 handsets this year. In order to do that, the iPhone maker will likely need more than a quarter of combined iPhone sales, which would mean that the next-generation iPhone would be released at some point earlier in the third quarter than last year’s model, which went on sale in late September.

According to the Chen, “the ramping up of production of the iPhone 6 should start to help Catcher in the third quarter, making up 27 percent of the company’s third-quarter sales and 38 percent of its fourth quarter sales.”

Morgan Stanley expects Catcher to ship 20 million casings for all iPhone models including the iPhone 6, covering 17% of all iPhone orders in 2014.

Barclays Capital also sees Catcher as one of the iPhone 6 metal casing suppliers, and expects the iPhone 6 to be launched in the second half of the year. Barclays also thinks that new iPhone shipments will be 35% to 40% higher than iPhone 5s shipments following launch, saying Catcher will be responsible for 10% to 20% of casings for the handset.

The company says that some 225 older iPhones will be up for replacement over the iPhone 6’s life cycle from September 2014 to August 2015.